Goodbye Left Coast, Hello Midwest

So today we officially left Seattle for Iowa. Sad to leave a great city, but excited for the task ahead - gearing up for the big fight.

We left the hotel early in the morning so that we could beat the security lines at the airport - and Megan and I were chosen ones!

That sounds much more exciting than it really is. What it means is that we had a code on our tickets that meant that we were going to be specially searched! Yay! Yeah, it was cool for a second before the pat down and the officer with the rubber gloves opened every single pocket of my carry-on luggage and had me open my computer. That was neat. Not. Not neat at all, but actually quite painless and just added more time to our airport excursion.

So after getting through security, we hopped on our first plane that was to land in Denver. Got a window seat this time and took these pics from where I was sitting. The picture below is a picture from some altitude (I admit I was not paying attention to that detail) but all I noticed was that it was the tip of Ranier or Mount St. Helens - according to the passenger behind us - that was sticking out of the clouds. Pretty cool:



The next flight was alright, this time I was in an aisle seat, but I swear to god that the plane was circa 1950s. At one point during takeoff, the tray table in front of me actually fell out which made me quickly tack it back up for fear of some airline attendant coming down the aisle to beat me. I was seated next to a father and his daughter, which isn't much news until later when we landed and I'll get there, I promise.

Megan was seated across the aisle from me. There was a family behind me, which isn't much news except that the father behind me let his little girl sit in his lap - which isn't much of a story except that she kept kicking her feet against the back of my chair. At one point, she kicked the area where my head was and if I had gotten more sleep the night before and hadn't been so dazed when it woke me out of a nap, I'm sure I would have reached around and done something. Of course, it didn't help that their baby was in the aisle as well, screaming at the top of its lungs. The mother apologized to the father and daughter next to me where were directly in front of me - but said nothing to me as her daughter continued to kick up and down my seat for the entire hour and half flight. What happened to manners?

Which reminds me that the daughter in my aisle had a jar of cookies that she gladly shared with the family behind us, but none even offered to the stranger (and only person of color) on the plane. I say that as a joke, but seriously, I'm beginning to wonder...

And then as the flight went on, the father proceeded to lean his head on his daughter and drape his arm around her. Now this might seem cute and fatherly protective, but the manner in which he was leaning and she was sitting was a cause for concern - at least in my head. I began to wonder if they were not father and daughter until he said, "I was really proud of the things you said about our family the other day - and I know mom will be, too." As we were leaving the plane, she joked with him ,"I'm so happy to be home, I'll be mom has the water started in the washer for our laundry already." They laughed. I had a puzzled look on my face. Maybe it's cute, maybe it's slightly incestuous. I'm hoping for the former rather than the latter. Megan saw it too and she said it was sketchy at best. I'm not one to judge, but it was definitely strange.

Megan got to sit next to a girl who was wearing Daisy Dukes, flip-flops, a cut off shirt, permed hair, a tatoo on her hand, and with nothing to read. She kept leaning over to read Megan's magazine and making commentary. She was from Des Moines and so Megan asked her for some suggestions about where to go. According to her, there's not a lot to do in Des Moines, but stay away from downtown because that's where all the "snobby people" go.

Hi, we're from New York. Chances are, they will make us feel right at home.

So we got in, travled to Embassy Suites where we are staying - it's niiiice. The room looks like a bachelor pad, though. But it's still nice.

Then we went to a place called Centro that seriously reminds me of a Manhattan bar - it's considered a nice place to go - and met Judy, the staff person we'd be working with. This must have been the snobby place Daisy Dukes was referring to. We had a nice dinner, learned the lay of the land, and had a drink before cruising around a bit to learn the area a bit before retiring to the hotel.

Looks like we've got our work cut out for us, but hey, that's what this is all about. I might just like it here more than I thought I would...